15 Mediating between the THEN & NOW: technologies, practices and logics of narrating the (immediate) past

Chair: Cassandra Mark-Thiesen

This panel proposes to explore the production of the (immediate) past in and about Africa and its Diaspora via a diverse set of media and medial practices. Working with an understanding of media as a middle space or in-between, the panel questions how those narrating the (immediate) past in and about Africa and its Diasporas approach, curate and disseminate information based on different forms of media. Bringing together journalists, literary authors, memory scholars and historians, some accidental archivists, all mediators of knowledge about the (immediate) past in their own right, it delves into the medial characteristics of flowers, audiotapes, television shows, the internet, personal recollections, and items from second-hand stores in their craft. In short, we wish to consider the production, dissemination and reception of ideas about the (immediate) past in and about Africa and the Diaspora via a diverse set of media while taking into how knowledge produced is shaped by the medium itself.

How do we ... a) conceive of (archival) media throughout and with time? b) deploy such to create new knowledge? c) What happens to medial content, typically produced by specific publics on the continent, when it is removed from its original medial environment and presentative logic and is “put to work” for authors / scholars / journalists? d) To what extent do we position ourselves as producers and preservers of media? And with what thoughts on academic culture vs. other cultural practices and protocols?

Chair: Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen Panelists: Dr. Ruramisai Charumbira  Dr. Melanie Boehi Percy Zvomuya Katharina Greven / Lena NaumannDiscussants: Luisa Schneider